Union Health Ministry: Close to 5 crore vax doses will be available by June-end for states, UTs

A total of 4,87,55,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines will be available for direct procurement by states and Union Territories (UTs) by June end. The Union Health Ministry shared the information based on inputs received from vaccine manufacturers.

In order to ensure efficient and judicious utilization of available doses for successful implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination drive, the Ministry has advised the states and the UTs to prepare a district-wise COVID Vaccination Centre (CVC) for administration of COVID-19 vaccines.

It is also advised to use multiple media platforms for dissemination of such information to increase awareness among the masses.

Both the state governments and private CVCs have been asked to publish their vaccination calendar on the CoWIN digital platform in advance but have been warned to desist from publishing single day vaccination calendars.

The Centre has also advised the states and the UTs to ensure that there is no overcrowding at the CVCs as well as to ensure that the process of booking appointments on CoWIN is hassle-free.

The states and UTs have been advised to direct officials to prepare an advance plan for the administration of COVID-19 vaccine till June 15.

The vaccination exercise as a tool to protect the most vulnerable population groups in the country from COVID-19 continues to be regularly reviewed and monitored at the highest level.

India's COVID vaccination programme -- one of the world's largest -- started on January 16. The Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National COVID-19 vaccination strategy has been implemented from May 1 covering all from 18-44 years.

As part of the strategy, in every month 50 per cent of the total Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) cleared vaccine doses would be procured by the Central government, and it would continue to make them available to the state governments free of cost.

In addition to this, every month the balance 50 per cent of the CDL cleared vaccine doses would be available for direct procurement by the state governments and private hospitals.

The Union Health Ministry has been providing advance information on availability of COVID vaccines to be supplied to the states and UTs during the two fortnights of the month, and also the amount available for direct procurement from the manufacturers by the states and private hospitals.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday highlighted this in his interaction with the state and district officials on the COVID-19 situation.

The Health Ministry has again written to the states and UTs on allocation of COVID vaccine doses (for both Covishield and Covaxin) during May 2021 and during the first fortnight of June 2021 from the Central government channel (which is available free of cost), and availability of vaccine doses that can be procured directly by states and private hospitals during May and June.

"This advance visibility will enable better and more effective planning by the states," the Ministry said.

According to the advance visibility provided by the Central government to states and UTs, a total of 5,86,29,000 doses will be provided free of cost by the Central government to states from May 1 to June.